What Is a Perfect Health Diet?

A perfect health diet provides the proper combination of energy and nutrients. It has four characteristics: it is adequate, moderate, balanced, and varied. No matter if you are young or old, overweight or underweight, healthy or ill, if you keep these characteristics in mind, you will be able to select foods that provide you with the optimal combination of nutrients and energy each day.

A Perfect Health Diet Is Adequate: An adequate diet provides enough of the energy, nutrients, and fiber to maintain a person s health. A diet may be inadequate in only one area, or many areas. For example, many people in the United States do not eat enough vegetables and therefore are not consuming enough of the fiber and micronutrients vegetables provide. However, their intake of protein, fat, and carbohydrate may be adequate. In fact, some people who eat too few vegetables are overweight or obese, which means that they are eating a diet that, although inadequate in one area, exceeds their energy needs. On the other hand, a generalized state of undernutrition can occur if an individual s diet contains an inadequate level of several nutrients for a long period of time.
A diet that is adequate for one person may not be adequate for another. For example, the energy needs of a small woman who is lightly active are approximately 1,700 to 2,000 kilocalories (kcal) each day, whereas a highly active male athlete may require more than 4,000 kcal each day to support his body s demands. These two individuals differ greatly in their activity level and in their quantity of body fat and muscle mass, which means they require very different levels of fat, carbohydrate, protein, and other nutrients to support their daily needs.

A Perfect Health Diet Is Moderate: Moderation is one of the keys to a healthful diet.
Moderation refers to eating any foods in moderate amounts not too much and not too little. If we eat too much or too little of certain foods, we cannot reach our health goals. For example, some people drink as much as 60 fluid ounces (three 20-oz bottles) of soft drinks on some days. Drinking this much contributes an extra 765 kcal of energy to a person s diet. In order to allow for this extra kcal and avoid weight gain, most people would need to reduce their food intake significantly. This could mean eliminating many healthful food choices. In contrast, people who drink mostly water or other beverages that contain little or no energy can consume more nourishing foods that will support their wellness.

A Perfect Health Diet Is Balanced: A balanced diet contains the combinations of foods that provide the proper proportions of nutrients. As you will learn in this course, the body needs many types of foods in varying amounts to maintain health. For example, fruits and vegetables are excellent sources of fiber, vitamin C, potassium, and magnesium. In contrast, meats are not good sources of fiber and these nutrients. However, meats are excellent sources of protein, iron, zinc, and copper. By eating the proper balance of all healthful foods, including fruits, vegetables, and meats or meat substitutes, we can be confident that we re consuming the balanced nutrition we need to maintain health.

A Perfect Health Diet Is Varied: Variety refers to eating many different foods from the different food groups on a regular basis. With thousands of healthful foods to choose from, trying new foods is a fun and easy way to vary your diet. Eat a new vegetable each week or substitute one food for another, such as raw spinach on your turkey sandwich in place of iceberg lettuce. Selecting a variety of foods increases the likelihood that you will consume the multitude of nutrients your body needs. As an added benefit, eating a varied diet prevents boredom and helps you avoid the potential of getting into a food rut.

Goji Berries Health Benefits

In general, you will find profusely goji berries in natural food stores such as goji-laced chocolate bars, whole dried goji berries able to replace your raisins, and goji juice. The goji berry was most widely known as Chinese matrimony vine, Chinese boxthorn, or Chinese wolfberry before its exploding market of marketing hype. In the past decade, the name goji was not ever used for the plant or its fruit until eventually it became popular in the American market.

Almost all studies on the goji berries health benefits are mainly from foreign countries.
A number of clinical studies are already published. One publicized recently took into consideration for the effect of antioxidant in Fifty healthy Chinese volunteers by measuring antioxidant indicators in the blood through a double-blind, placebo-controlled study. The volunteers obtained approximately four ounces of goji berries juice on a daily basis for 30 days. Soon after 30 days, the authors measured the blood for antioxidant indicators, and then they recommended that continued using for further than
30 days can help to produce an effect of antioxidant by reducing conditions in connection with the rapid growth of free-radicals. Likewise, taking four-ounce glass of red wine each day at on the same price will certainly lead to similar benefits.

This follows the first double-blind, placebo-controlled study on the effects of goji berries standardized juice conducted outside of China. The treatment group (16 individuals) received about four ounces of goji berries juice a day for 14 days. The placebo group had 18 volunteers. Volunteers were examined by subjective self-questionnaires, along with measures of blood pressure, pulse rate, visual acuity, body weight and body mass index (before and after treatment).

The authors concluded that there were significant differences for the treatment group compared with the placebo group, including increased ratings for energy level, athletic performance, ability to focus, sleep quality, calmness, mental acuity, and feelings of happiness, contentment, and health. In addition, the treatment group had improved regularity of gastrointestinal function and reduced stress and fatigue.

Benefits of Green Tea

Of all the beverages consumed today, tea is undoubtedly one of the oldest, most widely known, and most widely consumed, and also gives a lot of health benefits. Consumption was introduced to the world by traders and travelers. The method by which tea is processed determines whether green, black, or oolong is produced. Green tea is made by steaming fresh leaves at high temperatures, followed by a sequence of drying and rolling steps, resulting in tea that is for the most part the same chemical composition as the fresh leaves that bring the best health benefits of green tea. Black tea is fermented. The extent of the fermentation period determines the chemical composition of the tea; hence, the chemical composition of most black teas differs. Oolong is produced by solar withering of tea leaves followed by partial fermentation.

Tea leaves include several ingredients, some of which are believed to act as medicinal compounds. A feeling of relaxation can be induced by daily tea consumption. A part of this feeling may be mediated by either EGCG, L-theanine, or both. Tea components may be beneficial in a stressful society, and may have medicinal benefits for several mental diseases.

Tea leaves are also rich in phytochemicals, antioxidants, and caffeine, among a myriad of other chemicals. The amount of caffeine in a serving of tea is usually less than half the caffeine in a serving of coffee, but actual caffeine content can vary widely depending on the specific blend of tea and the brew strength.

Most health benefits of green tea include:

Lowers risk of cardiovascular disease by:
• Reducing inflammation
• Decreasing total cholesterol
• Decreasing LDL-cholesterol
• Protecting against blood clot formation
• Decreasing blood pressure

Decreases risk of cancer by:
• Inhibiting carcinogenesis
• Suppressing formation of carcinogenic substances
• Increasing the effectiveness of a number of chemotherapeutic agents

Protects against neurodegenerative diseases by:
• Decreasing plaque formation associated with Alzheimer’s disease
• Raising dopamine levels to ward off Parkinson’s disease
• Protecting against deterioration of brain function

The health benefits of green tea appear to be dose dependent, meaning that drinking more tea provides the greatest effect.

How Much Is Too Much Protein?

Many of the world’s people struggle to obtain enough food and enough protein to keep themselves alive, but in the developed countries, where protein is abundant, the problems of protein excess can be seen. Animals fed high-protein diets experience a too much protein overload effect, most notable in the enlargement of their livers and kidneys. In human beings, diets high in animal protein necessitate higher intakes of calcium as well, because such diets promote calcium excretion. Too much protein may also create an increased demand for vitamin B6 in the diet, which the body requires to utilize the protein. The higher a person’s intake of animal-protein sources such as meat, the more likely it is that fruits, vegetables, and grains will be crowded out of the diet, creating deficiencies of other nutrients.

Although protein is essential to health, the body converts extra protein to energy (glucose), which is stored as body fat when energy needs are met. Despite the flood of new protein-packed snack bars and other products in the marketplace, there are no known benefits from consuming excess or too much protein. The recommended upper limit for protein intake applies when calorie intake is adequate. Note the qualification “when calorie intake is adequate” in the preceding statement. Remember that your recommended protein intake can be stated as a percentage of calories in the diet or as a specific number of grams of dietary protein. The recommended protein intake for a 150-pound person is roughly 55 grams, or about 12 percent of their daily caloric intake. Fifty-five grams of protein is equal to 220 calories and equals 11 percent of a 2,000-calorie intake, which is reasonable for a 150-pound active person. If this person were to drastically reduce his or her caloric intake to, say, 800 calories a day, then 220 calories from protein is suddenly 28 percent of the total. However, it is still this person’s recommended intake for protein, and a reasonable intake. It is the caloric intake that is unreasonable in this example. Similarly, if the person eats too much protein or too many calories, say, 4,000, this protein intake represents only 6 percent of the total caloric intake, yet it is still a reasonable intake. It is the caloric intake that may be unreasonable.

Thus, it is important to be careful when judging protein intakes as a percentage of calories. Always ask what the absolute number of grams is, too, and compare it with the recommended protein intake in grams. Recommendations stated as a percentage of calories are useful only when food energy intakes (calories) are within reason.

Healthy Balanced Diet For Your Baby

Although milk provides most of your baby’s nutrients for the first year, it’s important to choose the healthiest foods and drinks for him. His stomach is small, and every mouthful should add to his nutrient intake. Like adults, he needs a healthy balanced diet, even when he is eating only one or two meals a day. Your baby will begin with only a few tastes at each mealtime. By seven months, he should be eating three small meals a day, with food from each of the food groups below. Until he is a year old, he still needs about 20 fl oz (600ml) of breast milk or formula, but he will get this in fewer feedings.

Overall nutrition Don’t worry too much if your baby doesn’t get a little of every food group in each sitting. It’s more important to look at the overall picture - as long as he is getting a few servings of everything throughout the day, he’ll be doing well. As he heads toward two or three full meals a day, make sure that he gets at least a spoonful of fruit and vegetables, a carbohydrate (such as pasta, potato, or baby rice), some protein (in the form of some lentils, soy, meat, fish, dairy) and some healthy fats, also contained in dairy produce, eggs, nut butters, ground seeds, and meat. Variety is more important than quantity in a healthy balanced diet.

Carbohydrates These provide the energy to grow and develop. Complex carbohydrates, which are unrefined, such as whole-grain cereals, breads, brown rice, and pasta, and fruit and vegetables are the healthiest carbohydrates for your baby and will provide him with plenty of fiber, a little protein, as well as vitamins and minerals. Most importantly in a healthy balanced diet, they provide a sustained source of energy.

Fats These are essential for babies, and required for many body functions, including the nervous system. More than 50 percent of the calories in breast milk come from fat, of which the most important type is EFAs, or essential fatty acids. These are found in oily fish, nuts, seeds, vegetable oils, and avocados, as well as some grains, such as quinoa. These are important for growth, development, behavior, and the ability to learn. Avoid hydrogenated trans fats.
Saturated fats, which are found in whole milk dairy and meat, have been linked with health problems, such as cardiovascular disease; however, your baby does need them in small quantities.

Proteins Fish, lean meats, legumes (such as lentils, beans, peas, and chickpeas), soy, dairy, eggs, whole grains, and chicken, all contain protein, which provides your baby’s body with the tools he needs to grow and develop. He’ll need several servings of good-quality protein each day to meet a healthy balanced diet.

Fiber One of the food groups that play an important role in healthy balanced diet is fiber. This is found in fruit, vegetables, and whole grains, and it has a host of roles in your baby’s body, including ensuring healthy digestion and bowel movements, stimulating saliva to protect his teeth, and encouraging the absorption of nutrients from the food your baby eats.

Vitamins and minerals Your baby needs all the vitamins and minerals found in a healthy balanced diet that includes protein, complex carbohydrates, good-quality fats, and lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Iron is especially important for your baby’s development and growth. This key mineral is found in dried fruits, meat, leafy-green vegetables, legumes, and iron-fortified cereals. Also important is vitamin C, found in most fruits and vegetables. This is required for your baby’s overall health and, in particular, his immune system, bones, and skin. It’s also necessary for iron to be absorbed.

Vitamin D, needed for bones and teeth, is in eggs, oily fish, and dairy.
Finally, your baby needs calcium for healthy bones and teeth, and other body functions. This is found in leafy green vegetables, dairy, sesame seeds, almonds, and soy.

Every other vitamin and mineral is required, too, so ensure that your baby’s diet is healthy balanced.

Spinach Health Benefits

You probably don’t like eating spinach because of its bitter taste but you know spinach can give you a lot health benefits. A great strengthening and energizing vegetable is one of spinach health benefits, spinach makes an excellent food for anyone feeling tired and run down, and for the anemic and elderly. A storehouse of nutrients, it contains vitamins C and E, beta-carotene, iron, folic acid, potassium, calcium, magnesium and chlorophyll. Spinach has the bonus of being easy to digest and, in fact, has digestive properties itself, enhancing appetite and stimulating digestion and absorption by increasing the secretion of digestive enzymes and bile.

Spinach is thought to have originated in South-West Asia or the Western Himalayas, and was first cultivated in Persia. The early Arabs apparently prized it as a dish of great distinction and took it to Spain in the 10th century, from where its popularity spread to the rest of Europe. It was grown by monks in many medieval monasteries in Europe and formed part of a peasant’s diet and brought a lot spinach health benefits for people at that time. In 16th century England, it became popular as a light, nutritious and easily digested vegetable. It was given to convalescents and the weak and infirm to impart vigor and strength and to help restore them to health. In the early 20th century, spinach was considered an excellent food not only for anemia and lassitude, but also for kidney and heart problems, indigestion, piles and constipation.

Spinach is delicious in soups and vegetable dishes, impacting a rich, tangy flavor and vibrant dark-green color that almost makes you feel better just looking at it. The abundant chlorophyll and bioflavonoids that give spinach its wonderful hue are also greatly therapeutic. Another spinach health benefits is when taken regularly, they are believed to help deactivate carcinogens in the body and so may inhabit tumor formation. Among the bioflavonoids are the carotenoids beta-carotene and lutein, which have both been shown to help prevent cancer of the colon, stomach, lungs and the prostate. It is said that of all vegetable juices spinach may be the best for cancer prevention.

Here are some spinach health benefits:

• Spinach’s mild laxative action helps to clear wastes from the bowel and prevent against heart and circulatory problems.
• Aids the elimination of toxins via the kidneys, so it can be valuable in treating health problems associated with toxicity including skin disease.
• Enhances immunity and so helps the body fight off infection.
• Antioxidants help to ward off degenerative disease including arthritis and heart disease.
• The folic acid in spinach helps to prevent anemia. It is also vital for pregnant women to ensure normal development of the baby’s brain and spinal cord.
• One great spinach health benefits is the carotenoids in spinach have been found to help protect eyesight by protect against macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness in people of the age of 65.

Onions Health Benefits

You may know that eating onion is good for health to prevent some illnesses but what are actually onions health benefits? Onions has many health benefits. The onion is usually referred to as “the king of vegetables” due to its taste of pungency, culinary versatility and powerful antiseptic properties. Full of vitamins A, B and C, it’s really strong source of calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and iron. When raw, onion is great digestive stimulant and liver tonic. One of the best onion health benefits is, when you cooked, it can help relieve chronic constipation and flatulence. A tea of boiled onion skins can lessen the unpleasant signs and symptoms of diarrhea.

A close relation of garlic, onion was venerated by the ancient Egyptians as a symbol of vitality and as a cure-all for many illnesses. Ancient records reveal its use in religious rites and healing as early as 4000BC. Its antiseptic qualities have proved effective against infectious diseases such as typhoid, cholera and the plague. As recently as World War II, vapors from onion paste reduced the pain and accelerated the healing of soldiers’ wounds.

Healing drinks containing onions take a wide variety of forms such as infusion, soup, vine, decoction, syrup and juice. You can use any variety of globe onion but not pickling onions. If you like your onions strong and pungent, try the smaller varieties - they are the ones that make your eyes water when you cut them open. Spanish and Italian red onions are milder than most and often sweet but they bring good onion health benefits. The white and yellow varieties lose some of their strength when heated and infuse other foods with a sweet flavor.

Following are some health benefits of onions:

Raw onion is incredibly germ killing. It battles contagious bacteria, such as E, salmonella and coli, and is particularly effective against tuberculosis and transmissions from the urinary tract, including cystitis.

Onion’s pungency increases blood circulation and causes sweating, beneficial in cold damp weather to defend against infection, reduce fevers, and sweat out colds and flu.

Onion juice is excellent for sore throats, pharyngitis, rhinitis, colds, catarrh and sinusitis, breaking up mucous congestion.

Onion’s diuretic and blood- cleansing properties can counter fluid retention, urinary gravel, arthritis and gout.

Onion’s detoxifying effects relieve tiredness and exhaustion.

Another onion health benefits is to reduce cholesterol level, decrease low-density lipoprotein and help to prevent heart attacks. What you can do is to eat half of medium raw onion every day. Both raw and cooked, onions lower blood pressure level, thin the blood, dissolve thrombus and clear the blood of unhealthy fats.

Too Much Fiber Can Cause Health Problems

A diet high in fiber is important to human health, when consumed with adequate fluid, reduces the risk of constipation and disease of the colon because stools are softer and less pressure is needed for defecation. A high-fiber diet may also reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and colon cancer.

However, a high-fiber diet or too much fiber consumption can cause problems if fluid intake is not sufficient, or if fiber intake is increased too rapidly. Too much fiber diets also have the potential to affect vitamin and mineral levels and calorie intake.

Consuming fiber without consuming enough fluid can cause constipation. Fiber increases the need for water because it holds fluid in the gastrointestinal tract. The more fiber there is in the diet, the more water is needed to keep the stool soft. When too little fluid is consumed, the stool becomes hard and difficult to eliminate. Intestinal blockage can occur in severe cases when fiber intake is excessive and fluid intake is low. To avoid these problems, the fluid content of the diet should be increased when fiber consumption increases. Even when there is plenty of fluid, a sudden increase in fiber intake can cause abdominal discomfort, gas, and diarrhea due to the bacterial breakdown of fiber. To avoid these problems, fiber intake should be increased gradually.

In some people, a diet high in fiber can increase the risk of vitamin and mineral deficiencies. This occurs for two reasons. First, the increase in the volume of intestinal contents that occurs with too much fiber intake may prevent enzymes from coming in contact with food. If a food cannot be broken down, the vitamins and minerals from that food cannot be absorbed. Second, fiber may bind some minerals, preventing their absorption. For instance, wheat bran fiber binds zinc, calcium, magnesium, and iron, reducing their absorption. Too much fiber diet can contribute to deficiencies when the overall diet is low in micronutrients. High-fiber diets are of concern in children because they have small stomachs and high nutrient needs. Children consuming a diet that is very high in fiber may feel full before they have met all their energy and nutrient needs.

Benefits of healthy eating

Healthy eating is the way we eat the right combination of foods, our diet provides all of the nutrients and other substances we need to stay healthy. If we choose a poor combination of foods, we may be missing out on some nutrients and consuming others in excess.

There are actually more than 40 nutrients that are essential to our life. We need to consume these essential nutrients in our diets because our bodies either cannot produce them in large enough amounts for optimal health. Different foods contain different nutrients in varying amounts and combinations.

Benefits of healthy eating are the facts that make us to stay healthy with a good range of body weight. The followings are some benefits of healthy eating that we can have from:

• Healthy eating provides the body with sufficient energy and nutrients to promote health, prevent deficiencies, and reduce the incidence of chronic disease. If we have over nutrition in our diet, it will definitely produce an excess of energy or nutrients which are the causes of obesity and the risk increasing of developing diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.

• Healthy eating provides the right number of calories to keep our weight in healthy range with the energy we expend to stay alive and active.

• Healthy eating provides the proper balance of carbohydrate, protein, and fat in our diets. The balance of these nutrients is one of the benefits of healthy eating which help to form body structures and to grow our body properly. Remember that it’s difficult to reduce the amount of fat in the diet if we don’t intake more carbohydrates or protein. Likewise, limiting the amount of carbohydrates can lead us to gain amount of fat or protein.

• Healthy eating provides plenty of waters in our body. Water is an essential nutrient that makes up about 60% of our weight. It provides no energy, but it is needed to transport nutrients, oxygen, waste products, and other important substances in the body and is needed for numerous chemical reactions. If body water is low, antidiuretic hormone causes a reduction in urine output and other hormones cause the kidneys to retain sodium.

• Healthy eating provides also sufficient but not excessive amounts of essential vitamins and minerals which help to regulate efficiently the rate of chemical reactions within the body.

Tips for healthy eating:
1. Eat at regular hours.
2. Don't skip any meal.
3. Don't forget to eat breakfast. Always start the day with a well-rounded meal.
4. Take the time to taste and to chew your food well.
5. Vary your menu.
6. Avoid pastries, sweets, crisps, soda drinks - anything that has little or no nutritious value.
7. Beware of salt consumption. It can cause hypertension.
8. Eat a lot of raw vegetables and fresh juice. Choose whole wheat bread.
9. Drink 6 to 8 glasses of water or vegetable juice or sugar-free juice per day.
10. You should also drink milk.
11. Eat good quality food supplements every day.
12. After each meal you should rest. Don't start to work or exercise right after.

10 Ways to eat green

You’ve probably heard how America’s infatuation with beef isn’t the best for the environment. The burning of fossil fuels during food production and the emissions associated with livestock and animal waste contribute to our global warming problem. On the other hand, vegetarian diets seem to protect the environment, reducing pollution and emissions in our air and waterways.

If you’d like to adopt a greener diet, but aren’t ready to go total vegetarian, here are ten tips to help.

■ Adapt Your Favorite Recipes. If you just love your grandma’s recipe for beef casserole, try changing it a little. Add chicken instead, or fish, or eventually, even tofu or tempeh.

■ Meatless Monday. Choose one day a week to go meat-free, and use it to explore vegetarian options, like pasta, burritos (beans only), or vegetable stew.

■ Grow Your Own. Consider starting your own garden. Start small, with a 6’ x 6’ space. Vegetables like carrots, tomatoes, and
onions are easiest to grow.

■ Go Local. It’s nice to get bananas year round, but trucking produce out of season puts more emissions into the air. Shop at your
local farmer’s markets and buy produce in season.

■ Pick Your Fish. Fish is great for the brain and the heart, but our penchant for some species is contributing to over-fishing. Some fish have proven to be sustainable, and others not so much. The Alaskan salmon fishery is well managed, but the albacore tuna industry has yet to prove sustainability. When choosing green, go for tilapia, wild salmon, Pacific halibut, and white sea bass, and avoid Chilean sea bass, swordfish, and ahi tuna.

■ Choose Green Beef. When you do eat meat, choose organic, chemical-free options. Look for beef labeled 100% grass-fed/finished.

■ Toss the Packaging. We love the convenience of packaged foods, but those packages end up heaped in our landfills, and they
require lots of energy to produce. Choose whole foods whenever you can and cut down on the boxes and bags.

■ Check the Label. In today’s supermarket, you’ll find more on the label than the nutrition facts. The USDA “certified organic” label means the product maintained organic integrity from farm to table. Others have eco-logos as well, which can signify a more sustainable product or process. Look carefully.

■ Buy Organic. Studies have shown that organic produce has fewer pesticides. Pesticides leak into our waterways, so cutting down on our demand for them can only contribute to a greener world.

■ Banish the Bottles. Those plastic bottles holding water take a lot of energy to make and ship, and are piling up in waste areas. Purchase a reusable bottle and use the tap—buy a filter if you want to be sure it’s free of chemicals.